Abstract
The white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) causes mass mortalities in the aquaculture of shrimps worldwide. The mud shrimp Austinogebia edulis (Ngoc-Ho & Chan, 1992) is an economically important sea food item occurring along the west coast of Taiwan. While the population of A. edulis began to decrease with some fluctuations in the last decade, the current study aims to discover the causes for such sporadic population decline. This study explores the effects of microbial pathogens and innate immunity on the populations of A. edulis. Here, we report firstly about WSSV infection of A. edulis from the coastal zone of western Taiwan which is one of the possible causes of population decrease of A. edulis in Shengang. However, WSSV infection is not the only reason for its population decrease because a similar infection rate of WSSV was found in Wangong. Population changes may be related to both environmental pollution stress and WSSV. Both factors likely caused a massive reduction of hemocytes and an abnormal increase of phenoloxidase and superoxide dismutase activity, which were spectrophotometrically measured. Since there is no effective way to treat WSSV infection, improving the coastal environment appears the most effective way to increase the population size of feral shrimps.
Highlights
In Taiwan the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) was first discovered in 1992
It is easier to collect samples at Wangong compared to Shengang. These areas are all located in the main production area of the mud shrimp A. edulis
No significant difference was found in the body length of A. edulis between Wangong and Shengang (Fig. 2A)
Summary
The mud shrimp samples were transported from the field to the laboratory in an incubator at low temperature conditions (about 4 °C) on the second day; healthy shrimps were selected to collect tissues for analysis in the laboratory. The re-suspended pellet was incubated with 50 mL trypsin (T-0303, Sigma, 1 mg/ mL) at 25 °C for 10 min, which served as an activator; 50 mL L-DOPA was added, following the addition of 800 mL of cacodylate buffer 5 min later. Following the method of Sun and coworkers[30], hemolymph (100 mL) was withdrawn from the ventral sinus of each mud shrimp into a 1 mL sterile syringe (25 gauge) containing 0.9 mL anticoagulant solution (Trisodium citrate 30 mM, sodium chloride 0.34 M, EDTA 10 mM, pH 7.55). The sampling of mud shrimps was approved and supported by the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
